Broadcast

Above the Fold is a one-hour documentary about a group of young Latino journalists who responded to negative portrayals of Latinos in the Los Angeles Times by writing their own stories. Working against resistance of their editors, they were vindicated in 1984 when they became the first Latinos to win the Pulitzer Prize. Above the Fold is more than just the underdog story of young reporters who go on to win American journalism’s top honor. It tells the story of a group of people fighting to make their own voices heard. And in doing so, present a complex and rich representation of Latinos in the news media.

Cesar’s Last Fast is a multi-platform, cross-media film about the private sacrifice and deep spiritual conviction behind Cesar E. Chavez’s 20th century struggle for the humane treatment of farm workers and organizers fighting today. Beginning in the past and ending in the present. Cesar’s Last Fast is built around powerful, never-before-seen footage of Cesar’s 1988 “Fast for Life”, a personal act of penance for not having done enough to stop growers from spraying pesticides on farm workers. Cesar’s Last Fast will appraise Chavez by linking the rise, decline, history and hope of Cesar’s movement to life in the fields in 2010.

El Béisbol is a two-hour documentary that takes an in-depth look at Latinos and Baseball, exploring how and when the game was introduced in the Caribbean and Latin America and emphasizing the struggles, phenomenal growth and eventual acceptance of Latinos who have played in the Major Leagues.El Béisbol will feature retired heroes and present stars from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Panama and Nicaragua, who have not only broken racial, cultural and language barriers in order to play America’s great game; but these peloteros have also triumphed in the face of adversity and great poverty.

Four prime time hours that will be a mosaic of the unexpected and untold sagas we find along the way, organized according to a theme or a location, like a travelogue of discovery. What will emerge is a picture of 21st Century America in all its hues: America coming out of the shadows. El Bús will be a snapshot of communities that are increasingly diverse, renewed by the hope of having the first President of color, but coping and imagining and recreating to survive in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Through the night-watchman’s vigilant eyes we enter into the world of El Jardín, a cemetery in the drug heartland of Mexico. Since the war on drugs began in 2007, the cemetery has doubled in size and the mausoleums have doubled in height creating a skyline that looks like a fantastical surrealist city more than a resting place for the deceased. Here, the lives of the cemetery workers and families of the victims, guilty and innocent, intersect in the shadow of this bloody conflict that has claimed nearly 30,000 lives.

Almost 80% of all carnival labor is foreign labor. Nearly 30%of the workforce comes from Tlapacoyan, a small town located in the foothills of central Mexico. Farewell, Ferris Wheel will illustrate the immense complexities that the American carnival industry and its workers face in order to legally navigate the U.S. immigration system with the H-2B seasonal work visa. Through a series of character-driven stories, the film will examine the escalating tension surrounding the H-2B and its far-reaching impact on American commerce, the town of Tlapacoyan, and the debate surrounding comprehensive immigration reform.

During the Spring of 1969 a Hollywood movie crew arrived in San Antonio, Texas to make a comedy about the Alamo. In the film, Mexicans retake the “sacred shrine.” The Alamo’s official custodians, the blue-blooded Daughters of the Republic of Texas, were not amused and tried to halt production. And thus converged a national media battle that resulted in permanent and unintended social change.

Now en Español chronicles the experiences of a small group of Latina actresses working as dubbers in Hollywood while trying to find more prominent, on-screen roles. Among them, they are single mothers, divorcees and recent immigrants struggling to balance Hollywood dreams with the responsibilities of making rent and raising children. Through these portraits of Latina women living and working in Los Angeles, Now en Español examines the way Latinos are represented in the media and documents the transformation of a nation dealing with changes in culture, language and identity.

Precious Knowledge interweaves the transformative stories of students in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School. The program has become a model of educational success with 100% of their students graduating from high school and 82% attending college. We filmed their social justice throughout an entire school year to document disenfranchised youth becoming engaged, informed and active Chicanos. However, Arizona lawmakers believe the students are being indoctrinated with dangerous ideology and that the classes teach anti-American, anti-capitalist destructive ethnic chauvinism.

Rainbow Coalition charts the history and legacy of a forgotten but groundbreaking multi-ethnic coalition that rocked Chicago in the 1960’s and forever altered the political landscape of the United States. Comprised of activists from the Black Panthers, the Young Patriots, and the Young Lords, Chicago’s Rainbow Coalition (1969-1971) united poor African Americans, Whites and Latinos to openly challenge police brutality and substandard housing in one of the most segregated cities in postwar America.

Ruben Salazar, one of the 20th century’s most prominent Mexican-American journalists, was killed in 1970 by an L.A. County Sheriff. At the heart of the film is Salazar’s transformation from a mainstream, middle-of-the-road reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement. The film will also embark on an in-depth investigation of his mysterious death at the hands of law enforcement – still a painful and unresolved chapter in American history.

Reporting from the frontlines of the new battle for America’s soul, acclaimed filmmakers Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini follow the volatile, unfolding story of Arizona’s racially charged immigration law, Senate Bill (SB) 1070. Tambini and Sandoval will strive to bring a cool, even-handed light to the explosive immigration debate through the personal stories of those on all sides of the issue as they live it day-by-day.

Fifty years after the Cuban Revolution, three architects resume their first project – Cuba’s National Art Schools – left unfinished in 1965 when their creative visions came head to head with the political realities of the Revolution. Unfinished Spaces tells the turbulent story of the Cuban Revolution through its most significant architectural achievement – the Cuban National Art Schools – and the architects Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti, and Roberto Gottardi, who designed them. Their story acts as a touchstone to explore Cuba’s past, present and future, also inviting discussions about art and politics.

More than a bragging right, the Coquito Master contest gives a platform to Puerto Ricans from diverse backgrounds – and with recipes that are closely guarded family secrets – to keep alive the making of this traditional Christmas drink, and along with this show the changing faces of Puerto Rican culture. Coquito is a metaphor for cultural longing that many Puerto Ricans in the diaspora feel for the island they left behind. Debbie Quiñones, the Coquito Contessa and founder of the International Coquito Federation, holds court as she with the panel of distinguished judges, crown the Coquito Master winner.

More than bragging rights, the Coquito Master contest gives a platform to Puerto Ricans from diverse backgrounds – and with recipes that are closely guarded family secrets – to keep alive the making of this traditional Christmas drink, and along with this show how the changing faces of Puerto Rican culture. Coquito is a metaphor for a cultural longing that many Puerto Ricans in the diaspora feel for the island they left behind. Debbie Quiñones, the Coquito Contessa and founder of the International Coquito Federation, holds court as she with the panel of distinguish judges, crown the Coquito Master winner.

¿Más Bebes? is the story of injustice, uncommon courage, and activism. Direct participants in the case will recount what happened inside the OB-GYN unit at LA County-USC Medical Center, and the resulting organizing campaign and class action lawsuit. The film will document the rise of a new generation of Chicana leaders who got their start as young activists and lawyers, working on the case in tandem with a whistle-blowing doctor who exposed the abuses. But the heart of the film will be lead plaintiff, Dolores Madrigal, and the sterilized mothers who never received compensation, an apology, or justice, and have been largely forgotten.

Digital Media

CaminosMedia.org

Juan Carlos Zaldivar

Producer: Juan Carlos Zaldivar
Category: New Media
Genre: Documentary

A web-action project that takes a pro-active approach to citizen journalism and the immigration reform issues by enabling web visitors to forward short media to their representatives in congress and to media outlets in their communities as well as by allowing web visitors to create their own media using raw elements from our films together with their own generated content within our media mash-up tool online.

Clara como el Agua – Clear like Water

Fernanda Rossi

Producer: Fernanda Rossi
Category: New Media
Genre: Drama

Clara is the only light-skinned and clear-eyed girl in an all black neighborhood in Puerto Rico. The children tease her endlessly, telling her that her father is some “gringo” tourist whom her mother had an affair with. However, her grandmother tells her a different story: she claims Clara’s mother bathed in the bioluminescent bay while pregnant, giving Clara not only her olive skin tone but also her name, Clara, or, clear. Tired of the harassment and contradicting stories, Clara steals a boat and struggles to reach the bioluminescent bay, where she discovers the water will indeed changer her life, but in a way she doesn’t expect.

New American Girls

Mitchell Teplitsky

Producer: Mitchell Teplitsky
Category: New Media
Genre: Documentary

New American Girls is a new media project that follows a year in the life of a group of smart teen Latinas in Denver aiming for careers in medicine, science, and engineering – if they don’t get deported first. In a city where 72% of Latino high school students drop out (the worst rate in America), these girls are graduating at the top of their class. But many are undocumented. Some clean houses; others are single moms. And all live in a state that opposed the Dream Act-bipartisan legislation that would create a pathway for undocumented students to attend college and become citizens.

Community Engagement

During his extraordinary life, Cruz Reynoso has been one of those rare individuals who are not only shaped by history – they make history. Sowing the Seeds of Justice paints a portrait of Cruz Reynoso, who was head of California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) firmly opposed Governor Reagan’s veto insuring the legal rights of the rural poor for many decades; who as the first Latino appointed to the California Supreme Court opened doors for those who followed him. For his lifelong devotion to public service, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and today continues to inspire others to become citizen-activists.

About Us

Latino Public Broadcasting is the leader of the development, production, acquisition and distribution of non-commercial educational and cultural media that is representative of Latino people, or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans. These programs are produced for dissemination to the public broadcasting stations and other public telecommunication entities. LPB provides a voice to the diverse Latino community on public media throughout the United States.